Protection of the Natural Environment and the Optimal Management of Plastic Waste in Arta

Lessons and Good Practices for the Plastic Waste in the University Campus of Arta

The 5-day Winter School on “Sustainable Coastal Management”, held in Arta, Greece was successfully completed on 28^th February 2020. The lessons addressed 20 undergraduate and postgraduate students and researchers from Greece and Italy. The Winter School was organized by the Laboratory of Knowledge and Intelligent Computing (KIC) of the Department of Informatics and Telecommunications of University of Ioannina, with the support of the University of Salento in Italy.

Professor Chrysostomos Stylios was the coordinator of the Winter School that took place in the frame of INTERREG V-A, Cross-border Cooperation Programme Greece-Italy 2014-2020 as part of the capacity building activities of the project RE.CO.RD – REcycling Strategies for the Coastal Sustainable Waste Management towards R&D Innovation. The lessons included analyses and interesting approaches on the sustainable management of plastic waste and good practices at national, European and international level. Indeed, exceptional presentations and experiential laboratories were conducted by Greek and Italian professors, researchers and experts on waste management fields that were focused on the proper management of plastics in coastal areas. The trainers form the University of Salento were Professors Alfonso Maffezzoli and Donatella Porrini and the researcher Federica Epifani. As regards the Greek trainers, they were the Professors Chrysostomos Stylios, Angelos Kalampounias and Paraskevi Mpeza, the Post-Doctoral Researcher Veronika Andrea and the external associate Dimitris Mparelos of the University of Ioannina; and the Professors Anna Maria Kotrikla and Victoria Athanasopoulou from the University of the Aegean.

The Winter School Programme included educational study visits in the broader area of Arta, Preveza, Aitoloakarnania and Lefkas Island. The students visited Arachthos Environmental Center, the Museum of Fisheries and Lighthouse in Kopraina, the marine aquaculture facilities of “EVRYALOS” in Menidi, Aitoloakarnania, the aquaculture of “GEITONAS” that produces eel products and the aquaculture farm of Thesauri that produces sturgeon caviar, in Psathotopi, Arta.

Furthermore, of particular interest for the trainees was the visit to the Cultural Center of Lefkas, where they were informed about the environmental education programs implemented by the Environmental Centre of Sfakiotes and the social enterprise Lefkogaia in Lefkas Island. Eventually, the trainees visited the new Marina of Preveza, where they were informed about the state-of-the-art of environmental management systems the operator adopts in order to prevent environmental pollution.

Project RE.CO.RD is listed under INTERREG V-A, Cross-border Cooperation Programme Greece-Italy 2014-2020, and involves three Municipalities, the Municipality of Otranto – Lead Partner, the Municipality of Santa Cesarea Terme, and the Municipality of Lefkada and two universities, the University of Ioannina and the University of Salento.

For more information please visit the Project Website https://www.interreg-record.eu/